How to Stop a New Nuclear Arms Race
Rose Gottemoeller | Foreign Affairs
Just days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dmitri Medvedev, the former president and prime minister of Russia, took to social media to post a chilling message. He raged against Western sanctions on his country and suggested darkly that Russia could rip up some of its most important agreements with the West. He mentioned the New START treaty, the nuclear arms reduction agreement signed with the United States over a decade ago, but the threat was broader still: the sundering of all diplomatic ties with Western countries. “It’s time to hang huge padlocks on the embassies,” he wrote. Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken steps to mobilize his nuclear forces—and made more likely the once remote possibility that nuclear weapons might be used in modern conflict—Medvedev’s post presages a dangerous turn.
James Acton: ‘Fukushima’ Is ‘Worst Case’ for What a Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant Accident ‘Could Look Like’
MSNBC
James Acton, co-Director of the Nuclear Policy Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss concerns over nuclear power safety as Russia continues its military offensive for a fourteenth day in Ukraine. “Fukushima is the worst case, I think, for what an accident of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant could look like,” says Acton. “I want to emphasize here, I don't think that's terribly likely. But the war makes it significantly more likely than it would be in normal circumstances.”
Iran Suggests New Obstacles Hinder Nuclear Deal After Russian Interruption
Parisa Hafezi, Josh Irish, and Francois Murphy | Reuters
Tehran on Thursday suggested there were new obstacles to an agreement on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal just as Western powers were grappling with last-minute Russian demands that threatened to torpedo otherwise largely completed talks. A week ago preparations were being made in Vienna for a weekend meeting to conclude an agreement bringing Iran back into compliance with the deal’s restrictions on its rapidly advancing nuclear activities and bringing the United States back into the accord it left in 2018 by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran. Then last Saturday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov unexpectedly demanded sweeping guarantees that Russian trade with Iran would not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine - a demand Western powers say is unacceptable and Washington has insisted it will not entertain.
North Korea to Launch Satellites to Monitor U.S. and Its Allies
Josh Smith | Reuters
North Korea will launch a number of reconnaissance satellites in coming years to provide real-time information on military actions by the United States and its allies, state media on Thursday reported leader Kim Jong Un as saying. While inspecting North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration, Kim said “a lot” of military reconnaissance satellites would be put into sun-synchronous polar orbit in the period of a five-year plan announced last year, state news agency KCNA reported. “He noted that the purpose of developing and operating the military reconnaissance satellite is to provide the armed forces of the DPRK with real-time information on military actions against it by the aggression troops of the U.S. imperialism and its vassal forces in south Korea, Japan and the Pacific,” the news agency said.
Nuclear Modernization Is the ’Absolute Minimum,’ STRATCOM Commander Says
Greg Hadley | Air Force Magazine
Modernizing the nuclear triad and its accompanying systems isn’t just necessary for the U.S. to deter adversaries—nuclear modernization is the “absolute minimum” that has to be done, the head of U.S. Strategic Command told a Senate panel March 8. Adm. Charles “Chas” A. Richard has been sounding the alarm on China’s nuclear progress for months, saying the Chinese experienced a “strategic breakout” after reports emerged that it had significantly expanded its nuclear infrastructure. Now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, tensions are higher than ever, and modernization should be just the start, Richard told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
S. Korea Likely to Return to Nuclear Power Generation Under New Gov’t
Oh Seok-min | Yonhap News Agency
South Korea is likely to make a U-turn from its yearslong nuclear phase-out drive as President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has vowed to scrap the policy and make the country a powerhouse in nuclear power generation. President Moon Jae-in has championed breaking away from nuclear energy since his inauguration in 2017 by retiring old plants and refraining from building new ones. But Yoon, as presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, slammed the policy and pledged to use nuclear power generation to reduce carbon emissions and the country's foreign dependence for energy.